(Pictures from top to bottom, left to right. Yen and Alisha, Yvonne and Saanvi, Kenneth and Yushun, Jimmy, Jack El and Mireya and Keira, Chiew Hui and Melanie.)
Today we planned to make necklaces. We had an idea document that the clients based their necklaces on. We also had other activities for the clients to do such as playing with a ball, making a design out of the heat beads, playing with the bowling pins, and stacking some blocks. The necklace activity was very successful as most clients were very excited, although, some clients got bored or finished their necklaces very quickly so they moved on to either throwing around balls, kicking down bowling pins, throwing the ball at bowling pins, or playing with stacking blocks. Some of the challenges we faced were we had trouble communicating with them as many of them either don’t speak at all (or speak very rarely) or they speak a different language. One example of this is Melanie and Chiew Hui (Pictured in the featured photo). Chiew Hui very rarely speaks but understands Mandarin, Melanie found a way of communicating to Chiew Hui by speaking in Mandarin to her which gave the two somewhat of a bond or in Melanie’s words “a better level of understanding”. This shows that just because it’s hard to communicate doesn’t mean its impossible and we can always figure out a means of communicating with our clients.
For this session Keira and I got a plate of assorted beads and sat down with Jack El and made one long necklace! We tied a knot at the end of the thread and started crafting! We helped him by holding the string and by taking his hands and threading the beads through the necklace string. I think he enjoyed making the necklaces but he enjoyed the game Keira and I played with him afterwards a lot more. We took little beads and swiped them off the table in one motion which Jack El found very exciting. Later we would get him engaged by picking up the little beads together from the floor and we’d do the entire process again! I really enjoyed MINDS and am looking forward to our next session together!